Joseph Besse (c. 1683–1757) was an English

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

controversialist. He quantified the sufferings and persecution undergone by the Quakers.

Biography

Besse was born about 1683 and lived in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

, where he was a writing master. There he married on 9 October 1716 Hannah Dehorne, who died in

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

. Besse then moved to

Ratcliff Ratcliff or Ratcliffe is a locality in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames between Limehouse (to the east), and Shadwell (to the west). The place name is no longer commonly used. History Etymol ...

, now part of east London, where he died on 25 November 1757 and was buried in the Friends' burial ground. His son of the same name emigrated to Pennsylvania. Besse was a convert to the Quakers from the

Anglican Church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

, in which he had refused a

living Living or The Living may refer to: Common meanings *Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms ** Living species, one that is not extinct *Personal life, the course of an individual human's life * ...

worth 400

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence ...

a year.

Works

Besse was a vigorous controversialist. Various works of his have been edited by William Sewel, Richard Claridge, Henton Brown, Isaac Penington, and

Samuel Bownas Samuel Bownas (1676–1753) was a Quaker travelling minister, and writer. He lived in the Lancaster and Dover areas of England. His book ''A Description of the Qualifications Necessary to a Gospel Minister'' is used to inform Quaker ministry ...

. His main books and tracts were: *''Carmen Spirituale . . . olim a Richardo Claridge Anglice compositum et editum et nunc Latine versum ab J. B.'', London, 1728 *''A Cloud of Witnesses proving that the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry hath misrepresented the Quakers'' (signed J. B.), London, 1732 *''A Defence of Quakerism'', London, 1732 *''Abstract of the Sufferings of the People call'd Quakers'', London, vol. i. 1733, vols. ii. and iii. 1738 (not an abridgment of the ''Sufferings'' mentioned below) *''The Protestant Flail'' (anonymous book on

baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

), London, 1735 *''A Brief Account of many of the Prosecutions of the People call'd Quakers for Tithes, Church-rates, &c.'' (anon.), London, 1736 *''A Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers, for the Testimony of a Good Conscience, from 1650 to 1689'', London, 1753, 2 vols, folio. Among those mentioned is Barbara Blaugdone as "a Woman of good Parts and Education". *''The Universality of the Love of God to Mankind'', London, 1755 *''Some Scriptural Observations on (1) the Spirituality of Gospel-worship; (2) the Nature of true Christian Prayer; (3) Our Saviour's Direction concerning Fasting'', London, 1756 His prime work is the ''Sufferings of the Quakers'', a laborious compilation of cases of persecution against Quakers, arranged by British counties, followed by New England, Barbados, Nevis, Bermudas, Antigua, Maryland, Jamaica, Europe and Asia, Isle of Malta, Hungary and Austria, Danzig, Hamburg, Germany, Ireland and Scotland. In 1746, Blesse edited and published a work by Penington, which he entitled ''The Doctrine of the People called Quakers, in relation to bearing arms and fighting; extracted from the Works of a Learned and Approved Writer of that Persuasion''. This defended Quaker beliefs on

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ...

, reacting to anonymous writings by Richard Finch.

References

English Quakers 18th-century English people 1680s births 1757 deaths People from Colchester Converts to Quakerism English religious writers Quaker theologians Quaker writers English male non-fiction writers {{England-reli-bio-stub